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Sarokal launches a new tester for generating, capturing and troubleshooting 5G Fronthaul traffic.

X-STEP V has been designed to address the testing challenges that new 5G Fronthaul protocol variants and increasing line rates bring to base station manufacturers and equipment vendors. It operates on a patented customizable platform that can be adjusted to meet 5G vendor specific testing demands.

X-STEP V supports line data rates up to 25Gb with multiple lines. It is also compatible with the current DRTx platform.

The latest Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) specification was released in August 31st, 2017.

Today, Sarokal Test Systems became the first test equipment manufacturer to offer eCPRI protocol support for Fronthaul base station manufacturers and equipment vendors.

Sarokal´s patented technology allows the company to develop new protocols quicker and support vendor specific protocol variants. This is highly valued by our customers as they work with cutting edge technology while developing future 5G mobile networks.

The new specification, known as eCPRI, or CPRI over Ethernet, introduces improved efficiency to match the speed and bandwidth requirements of 5G Fronthaul networks.

According to the Industry Initiative for a Common Public Radio Interface, the main advantages of the eCPRI protocol include the following:

• New functional split inside the PHY layer enables major reduction of the required bandwidth
• Flexible bandwidth scaling according to user plane traffic
• Use of mainstream transport technologies (e.g., Ethernet) opens the possibility to carry eCPRI and other traffic simultaneously in the same switched network

For the first time, lab-grade debugging and troubleshooting capabilities are introduced to field use.

X-STEP Outdoor provides the field technicians, both at the operator’s and device manufacturer’s end, the means to capture real life network problems and go through them on a bit level in the lab. It is also possible to leave the device at the site and let the manufacturer’s engineers capture and analyze the flow of data remotely.

“We have seen a growing demand for this kind of debugging tool as our customers suffer from “No fault found” type of device returns. The problem is that if no information exists about the actual error situations that take place in the field, they cannot be corrected back in the lab”.

“As the networks evolve towards 5G, network complexity increases and all possible configurations and scenarios cannot be tested and predicted at the manufacturing labs. For this reason, it is imperative to have field operable lab-grade tools to be able to efficiently solve the problems that occur only in the field, in real life networks”, says Mr. Harri Valasma, the CEO of Sarokal Test Systems.

JEDEC´s committees produce open industry standards that permit all interested companies to freely manufacture in compliance with adopted standards. Open industry standards serve a vital function for the advancement of electronic technologies. First and foremost, such standards allow for interoperability between different electrical components.

Sarokal Test Systems has released their first customer specific implementation of an Ethernet-based 5G Fronthaul protocol. This solution enables Sarokal X-STEP™ testers to emulate Ethernet-based Fronthaul traffic to develop 5G Fronthaul devices, like centralized and distributed baseband units (BBU), remote radio units (RRU), and different aggregation and switch units.

“When moving to 5G Fronthaul networks, Ethernet-based protocols are becoming more important. It is not feasible anymore to have direct point-to-point, always-on connections between baseband units and radio heads. Also, the network topology is changing as new units, like switches and radio aggregation units, are integrated as part of the Fronthaul network, says Harri Valasma, the CEO at Sarokal Test Systems.

Development work for public Ethernet-based Fronthaul specifications, including eCPRI and IEEE 1914, is currently ongoing and specifications are scheduled to come out starting from the second half of 2017. In the meanwhile, equipment manufacturers develop their Ethernet-based Fronthaul variants for R&D and demonstration purposes. Some of these variants may continue to exist as proprietary protocols even after the public standards are in place.

“The unique architecture of X-STEP makes it possible to support any of these variants, and we have already delivered our first Ethernet-based Fronthaul testers to our customers. Our ability to control and see everything literally in sent and received data is the key to enabling vendors to explore different implementations and proprietary solutions, as well as public standards”, Valasma continues.

If you missed the live broadcasting of our webinar with Comcores on December 2016, you can click on the following link, log in and watch “Fronthaul Evolution Towards 5G” now http://bit.ly/2hlzYrz

Synopsis

When we think about the 5G mobile network, often we only think of the new frequencies, higher user data rates, and shorter latencies. But fundamentally, it means a new architecture for 4G mobile networks and evolution from 4G to 5G.

This webinar looks at how we see the fronthaul network, and its evolution towards 5G. We look at the challenges and solutions influencing the on-going evolution, and what higher data rates, new communication protocols and architectural changes bring to the picture.

Driven by higher user data rates and massive MIMO antenna configurations, current CPRI versions are experiencing lagging problems and issues affecting QoS. During this webinar we are demonstrating how such protocols are solving such problems, as well as delving into the Radio Aggregation Unit and the advantages it offers.

Sarokal´s CTO Kari Vierimaa says that although IPR issues are not new to the company, it is increasingly important to see intellectual property from a holistic perspective, all the way from product development to brand management. Sarokal works in an industry where clients often have extensive IPR portfolios. This alone is a reason to manage one´s own intellectual property issues effectively, says Vierimaa.

Sarokal Test Systems releases Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) specification version 7.0 support for its Radio Base Station tester X-STEP.

Sarokal Test Systems´ X-Step product line with CPRI 7.0 enables users like chipset vendors, fronthaul equipment manufacturers and telecom operators to develop their 5G network elements and to verify that their implementations are compatible with the CPRI 7.0 specification. Sarokal’s X-Step also supports vendor specific implementations of the CPRI protocol.

Sarokal Test Systems´ implementation of the CPRI 7.0 specification has been verified against Comcores´ CPRI v7.0 IP and is currently being used in numerous customer production processes.

"We are a frontrunner in Radio Base Station interface testing working with the leading manufactures so it’s imperative that our test devices support the latest protocols and specifications. With CPRI 7.0 we offer support for the new CPRI line rate of 24.3Gb which will be a major update to Fronthaul Network line rates and devices", says Harri Valasma, CEO and founder of Sarokal Test Systems.

Sarokal Test Systems Oy will be presenting in the RAN World at Dusseldorf, Germany (27-28 September 2016). Meet us to discuss how Sarokal's X-Step reveals the Fronthaul and assigns the testing challenges of 5G! There are a lot of hot topics like support for vendor specific CPRI and other protocols, interoperability testing for DAS and C-RAN solutions and complete turnup tests for RRH installations.

Sarokal and South Korean WeGoes sign a distributor agreement expanding Sarokal's precense in Asia. WeGoes is seen as a good partner to work with in the rapidly developing LTE and 5G technology markets.

About WeGoes: Headquartered at Bundang, Korea. WeGoes (We are Expert Group of Electronics Solution) was founded in 2012 to provide our customers with a total solution, while bringing their products first to the market. For further information about WeGoes, visit http://www.wegoes.co.kr

Sarokal Test Systems Oy and Teltai (Taiwan) Ltd. signed a distributor agreement this week. "We want to constantly improve our services and Teltai's good reputation and deep knowledge of the local market were the key factors that led us choose them as our partner", says Sales Manager Ville Kukkonen from Sarokal.

Sarokal Test Systems enters into a partnership with IS-Wireless. The companies will collaborate on development of new solutions for testing 4G and 5G radio interfaces.

IS-Wireless (www.is-wireless.com) is a Polish software developer specializing in advanced solutions for wireless systems. It will provide expertise in designing algorithms, protocols and tools for 4G and 5G radios

Sarokal Test Systems is a Finnish developer of a revolutionary X-STEP Test System. The company brings vast experience in building unique test solutions for radio base stations.

Sarokal Test Systems precense in South Asia strenghtens as India-based EmuPro Consulting Private Limited signed a distributor agreement in early January. EmuPro has solid experience in emulation, prototyping and verification services and they are a strong player in the area. Welcome aboard!

Sarokal Test Systems Oy signed a distribution agreement with Swedish 7L Test AB. "7Lab's strong expertice in telecom test equipments and knowledge of the local market is highly valued by us and the cooperation will provide faster response time and local contact point for our Swedish customers", says Sales Manager Ville Kukkonen from Sarokal Test Systems.

Sarokal Test Systems Oy is expanding to Korean markets by signing a partner agreement with Tricomtek Co, Ltd. Harri Valasma, CEO, Sarokal Test Systems: “Korea has been one of the leaders in telecommunication area for a long time, and a home for several world leading technology giants. Korean engineers value innovativeness and high quality solutions, which is a good starting point for Sarokal’s revolutionary test solutions’ sales success in Korea. Sarokal’s market expansion is possible with Tricomtek due to its existing business relationships with all the potential customers in Korea. ”

Sarokal Test Systems Oy has made a partner agreement with RDT Equipment & Systems, an Israeli leading supplier of solutions and services for a wide range of professional industries. “Israel has a surprisingly wide and active high tech industry cluster when taking into account country’s amount of population. That’s why the presence in Israel is an essential part of Sarokal’s expansion strategy. Since our highly flexible test solution can be leveraged widely in the telecommunication field, RDT’s expertise matches well with Sarokal’s needs”, said Harri Valasma, CEO Sarokal Test Systems.

Sarokal Test Systems will be one of the industry partners of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Oulu in building Finland's first 5G test network. The 5G test network will serve as a realistic platform for 5G development and performance evaluation purposes. See the full press release on the VTT Technical Research Centre website.

Kari Vierimaa, CTO, Sarokal Test Systems Oy: "The ongoing 5G development is not only about new spectrums, wireless standards, or IoT, but it will also result in various changes to the architecture and partitioning of Radio Base Stations. For example, a part of baseband processing may move to the radio and antenna side in some applications to reduce the payload between the antenna and the baseband. The capacity of core network interfaces will increase and the fronthaul side will undergo significant changes. 5G will require enhancements to the existing digital I/Q interface protocols (such as CPRI™), plus we are likely to witness new fronthaul protocols appearing in the near future.

In the antenna converter interfaces, increasing sample rates and growing number of antenna elements in the MIMO applications will speed up the JESD204B adoption as the optimal ADC/DAC interface standard.

Regardless of where the 5G development will lead us and what the future Base Station architectures will look like, our X-STEP™ Radio Base Station Test System will be there to support the future HW and SW development phases."

Sarokal Test Systems will attend the MWC 2015 in Barcelona on the 2nd - 5th of March to present their revolutionary X-STEP™ test system at the Team Finland stand in Hall 5, booth 5C31. Come and meet us for presentations and discussions on the company and our products, and how we could support and boost your design verification and system integration flows.

Harri Valasma, CEO: "MWC 2015 is an excellent opportunity for us to meet potential customers and collaborators. The event is perfect for networking, getting updates on the latest trends, and sharing our views about the 5G development and its impact on the base station industry."

The Radio Base Station Protocol Test System from Sarokal Test Systems Oy allows stimulation and tracing of all the digital interfaces in a modern base station for Radio Equipment Control (REC) and Radio Equipment (RE) modules (aka Baseband Unit, BU, and Remote Radio Head, RRH). The digital interface protocols supported initially include JESD204B, CPRI, OBSAI RP3, and 10G Ethernet.

The Protocol Test System integrates in RTL simulation and HW emulation and also works with FPGA prototyping, real-time post-silicon board debugging and final product testing. The same tester platform covers every phase in a Radio Base Station product development cycle, ranging all the way from very first RTL simulations to post-production. The same tests can then be re-used in every phase of the product development cycle. Also, thanks to the parameterized test case building block architecture, the porting of test cases from one project to another is made easy.

"The new Protocol Test System fulfills the existing market need for a multipurpose, easily configurable and cost effective protocol test solution for the complex base station SOC verification and validation areas", says Harri Valasma, CEO and founder of Sarokal Test Systems. “To be able to re-use the same tests throughout the design and the manufacturing cycle is nothing but a dreams come true for engineering and project management”.

Sarokal Test Systems will be partnering with ISS at the S.E.E. event, booth C13:45.

The newly announced Radio Base Station Protocol Test System allows stimulation and tracing of the digital interfaces in all fronts of a modern base station in Radio Equipment Control (REC) and Radio Equipment (RE) modules, also known as Baseband Unit (BU) and Remote Radio Head (RRH).

Digital interface protocols supported at this first phase include JESD204B, CPRI, OBSAI RP3, and 10G Ethernet.

“The success we have had with our beta customer in Finland shows the effectiveness of the system and now it is time to introduce it to other customers“, says Harri Valasma, CEO and founder of Sarokal Test Systems.

About Sarokal Test Systems

Sarokal Test Systems Oy is the developer of an innovative Protocol Test System for ASIC and FPGA verification and validation needs in simulation, HW emulation, FPGA prototyping, and real time (post silicon) environments. The Test System can be utilized in a variety of high-tech fields, ranging from cellular base stations to automotive industry and nearly anything in between. For more information, visit the company website athttp://www.sarokal.fi.

About ISS Group

ISS Group provides professionals with Tools to Design, Test and Manufacture Electronics. They are situated in Stockholm, Sweden, serving a home base of the hi-tech companies of Scandinavia. The ISS Group ship and support products throughout the entire EU market and works closely with their customers manufacturing sites throughout Asia and the rest of the world.

Sarokal Test Systems Contact:

Harri Valasma, CEO

Mobile: +358 40 562 0377

Email: info@sarokal.fi

ISS Group Contact:

Ronny Stromberg

Mobile: +46 (0)70 594 26 81

Email: ronny@iss.se

This material is for informational purposes only and subject to change without notice. It describes Sarokal Test Systems’ present plans to develop and make available to its customers certain products, features and capabilities. Sarokal Test Systems is only obligated to provide those deliverables specifically included in a written agreement between Sarokal Test Systems and the customer.